U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,759,366 and 6,784,906 disclose technology enabling two sided thermal printing. Systems for printing a medicine label and related advisory information are described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,304,849 entitled “Method and system for printing a combination pharmaceutical label and directed newsletter”; U.S. Pat. No. 6,240,394 entitled “Method and apparatus for automatically generating advisory information for pharmacy patients”; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,067,524 entitled “Method and system for automatically generating advisory information for pharmacy patients along with normally transmitted data” all of which name Baxter Byerly as an inventor, and the teachings of all of which are incorporated herein by reference.
Catalina currently prints its “PatientLink” information in pharmacies. PatientLink contains information in a newsletter form including about 25% of the time sponsored information. Either Catalina or a sponsor generates the content.
Pharmacies print prescription labels. Pharmacies may also distribute additional information to prescription recipients, such as MedGuide and/or monograph. Under current practice, all MedGuide information is preprinted and shipped to each pharmacy, and the pharmacist or clerk is responsible for selecting the correct MedGuide and conveying that document with each prescription for the corresponding drug.
Many pharmacies generate their prescriptions by printing the prescription label, placing the label on a bottle, locating in their store the specified drug, placing the specified quantity of drug in the bottle, and then placing the bottle in a small bag. Then, they either staple MedGuide or related information to the bag, place that information inside the bag, or locate the pre-printed MedGuide information when the prescription recipient requests possession of the prescription.
Acronyms
NDC is an acronym for National Drug Code.
DCC is an acronym for Drug Classification Code.
CS is used herein as an acronym for “Computer System”.
CHR is an acronym for Catalina Health Resource.
POS is an acronym for Point of Sale.
FDA is an acronym for Food and Drug Administration.
CID is an acronym for Consumer IDentification.
PID is an acronym for Patient IDentification CID and PID are synonymous in this application.
XML is an acronym for Extensible Markup Language.
PMS is an acronym for Pharmacy Management System.
CS is an acronym for Computer System
Definitions
A CID means any identifier that can be used to identify a consumer that can be scanned, read, or otherwise entered into a computer.
A “consumer” means a person or family or group of people that use the same CID when purchasing or filling a medicinal prescription in a store, such as a pharmacy store.
A POS is an area where a consumer engages in transactions with a retail store, such as a pharmacy store.
NDCs are codes associated with drugs. Preferably, NDCs are the unique 11-digit 3-segment number that identifies the labeler/vendor, product, and trade package size of a medication listed under Section 510 of the U.S. Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.
DCCs are codes associated with medications based upon the medication's effects on human beings such that several medications may have the same DCC.
Individual transaction data includes but is not limited to data conveying some or all of following information: time of transaction, date of transaction, CID, individual transaction ID, pharmacy ID, product purchased, price of product purchases (list price and/or actual price paid), payment instrument type, payment instrument identifier.
A MedGuide is a guideline containing FDA-approved patient information associated with a DCC. For example, a MedGuide can include information such as, important information a patient should know about the drug, what the drug is, who should not take the drug or medicine, information a patient should tell a doctor before starting the drug, how a patient should take the drug, how a patient should store the drug, what a patient should avoid while taking the drug, the side effects of the drug, other information about the ailment of which the patient is taking the drugs for, the ingredients of the drug, and general information about the safe and effective use of the drug. A MedGuide contains text, which may be stored as a text computer file.
A drug monograph is a written description of a drug or medicine associated with an NDC. For example, a monograph can include information such as, introduction, summary, pharmacology, pharmaco-kinetics, FDA approved indications, off-label uses, dosage and administration, adverse effects, overdose, safety data, contraindications, warnings, precautions, drug interactions, efficacy measures, cost comparison, clinical trials, conclusions, recommendations, references, supplied, and research. A drug monograph contains text, which may be stored in a text computer file. A drug monograph is not required by the FDA. Drug monographs are third party content having drug related information. Government regulations (OBRA 1990) requires pharmacist to counsel all patients receiving Federal services. Monographs and certain other written information in practice can fulfillment the counseling requirement.
Prescribing Information (PI) or Full Prescribing Information (FPI) are documents the drug manufacturer is required to produce before a prescription drug can be sold. Patient Package Information (PPI) is a manufacturer produced document requiring FDA (government) approval, designed for the consumer, and meant to be a substitute for the PI, if approved by the FDA.
PatientLink is the name Catalina Marketing uses for the newsletter it has pharmacies print at the pharmacy store for patients receiving a prescription. PatientLink includes Catalina generated and sponsor generated content.
A PMS means a computerized system for managing pharmacy prescription information in order to assist a pharmacy in receiving and fulfilling prescriptions. It includes at least a computer including a Input/Output (I/O) terminal for a user to input pharmacy prescription information, a printer for printing prescription labels for pharmacy products, a processor for processing digital information, a memory system for storing pharmacy information, and operating system and applications programming.
Accompanying information includes but is not limited to information provided to the prescription recipient along with the prescription medicine and the prescription label. Accompanying information includes MedGuide, drug monograph, PI, FPI, PPI, and PatientLink information.